In today's game vs Puerto Rico, Celtics Rookie Semih Erden showed some good things that bode well for his future in the NBA. He scored 10 points, pulled down 6 rebounds (3 offensive) and had a blocked shot without committing a single turnover in 19 minutes of play.

His Turkish team was up just one point going into the 4th period and were battling a very feisty Puerto Rican squad that featured NBA players Renaldo Balkman and JJ Barea. Erden scored 7 of his 10 points in the final quarter. He was active on the boards and set some very strong screens. He also got to the line often, hitting 6 of 7 free throws. His defense around the basket has been quite good as well.

Erden's team won the game 79-77 to move their record to 4-0 in group play, remaining the only undefeated team in Group C. They close out group play on Thursday against China. The game will be at 2:00 PM ET and will be televised on NBA-TV.

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Erden has been above average in the latest two games, but his concentration issues persist. Today was one of his better performances definitely, especially in the last quarter he helped Turkey get the lead. It's also worth noting that he had this performance against a team that more or less resembles the American way of playing basketball.

But against Greece he wasn't that good. For example, his defensive performance against Greece's Baby Shaq was questionable. He will get to be against players of that size, and he needs to use his basketball IQ in such cases.

Good news is that he has some moves in the post now. He was quite inefficient in the past about that, and I'm really glad that he's improved offensively.

Another player on that team to be a rookie this year is Omer Asik of the Bulls. His athletic abilities have been quite impressive, and he's more NBA-ready than our Erden.